Why GitHub Copilot is the best AI tool for software engineers to learn in 2024 so that they can be more productive

Copilot is not perfect, but it will become a standard tool in every developer’s workflow.

Do not make the mistake of dismissing GenAI tools because they get things wrong. These tools will continue to evolve and improve over time. You need to start learning them today.

GitHub Copilot is the best tool for software engineers right now. Here’s why:

GitHub Copilot is made for developers.

Copilot is already creating faster and happier developers.

The model used large open source repositories to train on. It is purpose built to recognize and generate code. There are privacy features so your prompts are not used in training the model. There is a vulnerability prevention system in place to help block any faulty code.

GitHub Copilot is for the sole purpose of being your AI pair programmer. Use it as one.

GitHub Copilot integrates into your workflow.

Isn’t it a pain sometimes having to open up a browser or app to talk to ChatGPT?

Copilot is right there in your IDE. You can open a new tab to start a chat with it when you need help brainstorming or have general questions. You can generate code right in your editor as well.

Removing these little barriers speeds up your work and helps keep you in the flow longer.

GitHub Copilot has the context it needs.

Anything you copy and paste into ChatGPT can become part of it’s training data.

With Copilot, your prompts are safe and you don’t need to copy-paste anything. Copilot will under the hood use any open files you have as part of the context to your prompts. This enables vague prompts like ‘what does this function do’ to return useful answers.

By using your codebase as part of it’s context, Copilot delivers relevant responses.